Quotes from the Movie Deep Impact

Look, I know you're just a reporter, but you used to be a person, right? I wanted to be with my family. Can you understand that?

Alan Rittenhouse

Good evening. A few minutes ago, the United States ambassadors to every country in the world told the leaders of those nations what I'm about to tell you. It's a bit complicated, so we'll take some time, so I hope you'll bear with me, hear what I have to say. A little over a year ago, two American astronomers, Marcus Wolf and Leo Biederman, working on a mountaintop in Arizona, saw something in the night sky that caused them great concern. A comet. But the comet was... well, there was a remote possibility that the comet was on a path that could bring it into direct contact with the earth. Now, we get hit all the time by rocks and meteors, some of them the size of cars, some no bigger than your hand. But the comet we discovered is the size of New York City, from the North side of Central Park to the Battery. About seven miles long. Put another way, this comet is larger than Mount Everest. It weighs 500 billion tons.

President Tom Beck

Secretary Rittenhouse served his country with full devotion. He resigned for personal reasons. Now, I can promise you this, Miss Lerner, all of you, everyone in this room and everyone listening to my voice, that at some point over the next ten months, all of us will entertain out worst fears and concerns. But I can also promise you this. Life will go on. We will prevail.

President Tom Beck

I wish... No, wishing is wrong. It's the wrong word right now. That's not what I mean. What I mean is, I believe in God. I know a lot of you don't, but I would like to offer a prayer for our survival, mine included. Because I believe that God, whomever you hold that to be, hears all prayers, even if sometimes the answer is no. So may the Lord bless you, may the Lord keep you, may the Lord lift his divine countenance upon you, and give you peace.

President Tom Beck

We watched as the bombs shattered the second comet into a million pieces of ice and rocks that burned harmlessly in our atmosphere, and lit up the sky for an hour. Still, we were left with the devastation of the first. The waters reached as far inland as the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. It washed away farms and towns, forests and skyscrapers, but the water receded. The wave hit Europe and Africa, too. Millions were lost, countless more left homeless, but the waters receded. Cities fall, but they are rebuilt. And heroes die, but they are remembered. We honor them with every brick we lay, with every field we sow, with every child we comfort and then teach to rejoice in what we have been regiven. Our planet, our home. So now, let us begin.

President Tom Beck

We always thought the deadline for public knowledge of next year's budget since we've spent more money than we can account for. That won't happen for two weeks. I don't suppose I could prevail upon you to wait for two weeks in the name of national security.

President Tom Beck

And I can't appeal to your sense of what's in the nation's best interest.

President Tom Beck

Give us two days, Miss Lerner, you'll get second row centre, at the White House press conference. Now, from what I know of your career, that's a promotion.

President Tom Beck

Now listen, young lady. This is a presidental favour. I'm letting you go because I don't want another headache. And I'm trusting you because I know what this can do for your career. Now, it might seem that we have each other over the same barrel, but it just seems that way.

President Tom Beck

Hey, Leo, now that you're famous, you'll get a lot more sex than anyone else in your class.

Jason Thurman

Well, congratulations, you now have the biggest story in history. Good luck to you. Personally, I think it's a mistake to run the story, but hey, what the hell? Why not? What difference does anything make anymore? Look, I know you're just a reporter, but you used to be a person, right? I wanted to be with my family. Can you understand that?

Alan Rittenhouse

Well, we know about the secret phone lines, and the whispered calls to the president, and about a secretary of the Treasury who's kept his entire department in the dark about what he's really doing, about a cover story about his resignation that just fell through. I mean, sir, you want me to go on?

Jenny Lerner

Two weeks? There's no such thing as two weeks in the news business.

Jenny Lerner

I always thought the truth was in the nation's best interest.

Jenny Lerner

When you came to the studio and brought me those pictures, I lied when I said I didn't remember. I remember everything, I remember that we were right over there, and that's when Mom got that picture of the house. It was a perfect happy day. I came down here to let you know that.